Beijing Tops List in Flight Delays Says FlightStats

The new Beijing airport that just received government permission in March can’t begin operating soon enough. In June, according to FlightStats Inc., only 18 percent of Beijing Capital International Airport’s flight departed on time making it the worst in punctuality among 35 international airports. Shanghai with 29 percent performance of on-time departures was the second worst. FlightStats says China has the worst on-time performance record in the world, while Chinese officials say 75 percent of flights departed on time last year in China. Of the 10 worst performing international airlines eight were Chinese.

Beijing’s Capital International Airport can handle 76 million passengers a year, but last year processed 82 million passengers, a growth of 4.2 percent over 2011. The new airport, scheduled to open in 2018, will have eight runways for civilian traffic and a ninth runway for military use. The Chinese military’s dominance of China’s airspace is being cited in aviation circles as the culprit in the problem. The Chinese military controls almost 80 percent of the country’s airspace.

The exponential growth of the domestic Chinese flyer is also a factor. IATA is predicting that domestic air will grow at 10 percent per year through 2016, adding 160 million more travelers. Air traffic controllers in China are also being seen as factors. After several accidents in the 1990s, Chinese air traffic controllers began imposing restrictions on landing planes that were far more cautious and time consuming than in other countries.

The new Beijing airport will have capacity for 40 million passengers in its first phase and in the second phase it will be expanded to a capability of 130 million passengers a year. It will be linked by a system of airport expressways and an exclusive train link, which will take passengers from downtown Beijing to the airport in 30 minutes. China is also moving swiftly on the creation of a high-speed rail network that it hopes will cut down domestic air traffic. By 2015, the country is on track to have more than 10,000 miles of high-speed rail in place.

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